Many machines have been designed and built for printing on balloons. Examples of these machines are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,988,662; 2,645,870; 3,224,364; 3,868,899; and 4,478,142. These prior art machines typically have a plurality of stations. At one the balloon is gripped and inflated; at another it is printed; and finally the balloon is discharged from the machine. Other strategies for manipulating or printing an inflated or inflatable object are illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,870,825; 2,016,450; and 3,391,803.
Some of these machines use an offset method of printing, one uses a direct transfer type of printing, and one uses a silk screen. The offset machines are relatively compact, but the image they produce is not as clear and sharp as the silk screened image. The silk screening type of apparatus may produce a sharp image, but it has heretofore been excessively large.
Further, the known silk screening devices have had a tendency to have the image printed degrade after a relatively few printing cycles. This is believed to occur because the squeegee or wiper of the silk screening device always travels in the same direction when printing. This causes ink to build up on one edge of the image on the silk screen, and this edge then does not print cleanly.